[MH] Take a breath and relax! It's not a conspiracy. > Why doesn't Minneapolis pass an anti-war resolution?
Results of a Mpls. referendum on the war would be interesting. A real time measure of citizen and voter sentiment would be even more interesting. A day-by-day, real time measure of voter opinion-- the politicians dream! Such results would likely even influence our national leadership in decisions regarding Iraq; maybe not. But, that's not what you are suggesting. It must be recognized that a vote of the City Council on this issue does not necessarily equate with a vote of the citizens, to say nothing of being representative of city voters. It has nothing to do with appeasing this party or that. And, to think that the federal dollars currently being applied to the Mid-East situation-- Iraq, could just be diverted to domestic needs, is, in my opinion, wishful thinking-- in a pragmatic sense. We are not spending today's dollars on this war effort anyway. It's all federal debt, to be paid at some future date by whoever is around to pay it. We don't even know what a war will cost, but it will likely be very inflationary. The federal government can operate in a deficit budget environment; Minnesota cannot, and thank goodness. And, I don't think the city can operate in a deficit situation either, although, basically, it has been. Where's the justice? If you want to support or oppose the Administration's position on Iraq, contact the President and members of Congress. Our city leaders have plenty on their plate dealing with our current budget situation-- layoffs of city employees including fire, police, road crews, planners and many more; service cuts, pension shortfalls; internal deficits, and other unfunded accounts carried forward from the previous city administration; shortfalls in parks and libraries, plus the known and even unanticipated emergencies that threaten to add more debt, while reducing revenues (i.e. pension shortfalls). BTW, when will our public pensions be converted from defined benefit to defined contribution?? Thus, it's no time for new CC elections-- there's too much business on the table now-- and I think our local officials have a decent understanding of the issues and solutions! Michael Hohmann Linden Hills ps And, Vicky is right about excessive debt levels in Mpls. A sale-lease back arrangement on the new downtown library could save city taxpayers a couple hundred million dollars in avoided debt! And, we'd have the new library to boot! Even if the County owned it, we'd still have a new library to use. Don't listen to those telling us why it can't be done, rather, ask what will it take to get it done, and at least cost for taxpayers? > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > Peter T Schmitz > Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 8:00 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Fw: [Mpls] NYC passes anti-war resolution > > > Why doesn't Minneapolis pass an anti-war resolution? Some of my friends > have speculated that Mayor Rybak and City Council President Paul Ostrow > are hoping that Governor Pawlenty and the Republican-controlled State > House of Representatives will be more supportive of our city if no > anti-war resolution is passed. If this is the case, then it's clear that > their strategy isn't working. It may even backfire if terrorists, > reacting to possible escalation of our country's 13-year war against > Iraq, target American cities that have been compliant in its calculated > silence with the Bush administration This is not to say that we should > be second guessing and appeasing terrorists any more than we should > sencond guess and appease Republicans. As for the issue of an anti-war > resolution being out of the scope of the city's official business, > billions of our federal tax dollars, currently financing this war, could > be could be redirected to financially-strapped municipalities, like ours, > struggling with homelessness, inadequate homeland security, lack of > affordable housing, and underfunded public schools.----Peter Schmitz > CARAG > snip TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
